Early War German light mortar

Several weeks ago I was gifted a sprue of the plastic Afrika Korps by Warlord Games and while I didn't like the figures some bits still can come in handy here and there. One thing I still needed for my other wise rather complete force of Early War Germans for Chain of Command was another 50mm light mortar and luckily there was one in the DAK sprue.

Mixing the DAK parts with the Early War Grenadiers proofed a little difficult and needed some surgery with scalpel and glue. As I was at it anyway I also built me two observers/ spare crew, one of which from the plastic Soviet Infantry I quite like to use the prone Soviet figures for Germans as they (obviously) don't wear that stupid Y-Tragegestell (Y-webbing) and thus work nicely for officer types. Just needed a pair of shoulder boards, easily sculpted on with Green Stuff.

Speaking of the Y-Tragegestell, this one is another pet peeve of mine. Looking at pictures of German soldiers (especially useful in this regard are pictures of surrendering Germans, i.e. before they're being disarmed) and from stories of family members who served during the war, I came to the conclusion that they were not that often worn in actual combat, especially not when troops were fighting from prepared positions or as part of a reconnaissance.

Thus I'd personally prefer a greater selection of figures without that, admittedly iconic, piece of equipment. There you have it. Some of you might not like shooting figures, others prefer standing over prone infantry - Silly I know ;-) -, yet others foolishly go for 1/48 over 1/56 for their vehicles and I'd prefer my Germans without Y-webbing.

Thanks for viewing!